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Healing Cervelli to adjust position of bare hand

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Cervelli's injury 1:57

4/26/13: Francisco Cervelli is forced to exit the game in the first after he is hit in the hand by a foul tip off the bat of Rajai Davis

By Bryan Hoch
/
MLB.com |

NEW YORK -- Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli said that after sustaining a fractured right hand on a foul tip last week, he will adjust where he keeps his throwing hand behind the plate without runners on base.

"I'm going to have the time to practice because these kind of things cannot happen anymore," Cervelli said on Monday. "I'm going try to catch with my hand [behind] my back. It's been all my career like that, but I don't need another fracture."

Cervelli was clipped by a tip off the bat of the Blue Jays' Rajai Davis in the first inning of Friday's game and said he knew immediately that the hand was broken.

"The funny thing is, that at-bat -- because I know Davis hits a lot of foul balls -- I was thinking, 'I've got to hide my hand a little bit,'" Cervelli said. "And on that pitch, boom, got it."

The Yankees have estimated that Cervelli will need a minimum of six weeks to recover.

"I think today it's five weeks and five days," Cervelli said. "I'm counting. Tomorrow is four days. I heal very fast. I've just got to stay positive."

Cervelli said that he had a plate inserted into his right hand, which now accompanies a couple of screws that Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser put in Cervelli's right forearm during a 2008 procedure.

"So I'm a robot now," Cervelli said.

Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.